Ogston (1881) coined the genus Staphylococcus to describe grapelike clusters of bacteria (staphylo=grape, Gr.) recovered in pus from surgical abscesses. Shortly thereafter, Rosenbach (1884) isolated this pathogen in pure culture, and proposed the species name S. aureus (golden, Lat.) for its characteristic surface pigmentation in comparison to less virulent staphylococci that normally colonize the skin surface.
Entering its seventh decade, the era of antimicrobial therapy has greatly reduced morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases. However, the emergence of resistant microorganisms has now reached epidemic proportions and poses great challenges to the medical community. Worrisome trends are particularly evident in the pre-eminent Gram-positive bacterial pathogen S. aureus, which has become increasingly unresponsive to first-line antibiotic therapies. S. aureus is probably the most common cause of life-threatening acute bacterial infections in the world, and is capable of causing a diverse array of diseases, ranging in severity from a simple boil or impetigo to fulminant sepsis or toxic shock syndrome. S. aureus is the single leading cause of bacteremia, hospital-related (nosocomial) infections, skin and soft tissue infections, wound infections, and bone and joint infections. It is one of the most common agents of endocarditis and food poisoning.
National prospective surveillance of over 24,000 invasive bacterial isolates show disease-associated S. aureus strains with methicillin resistance (MRSA) have increased from 22% in 1995 to 57% currently. MRSA are now frequently identified in community-acquired infections as well as in hospital settings. An urgent need exists for discovery of novel classes of antibiotics to address this genuine public health crisis. A half-century of synthesizing analogs based on <10 antibacterial scaffolds has resulted in the development and marketing of >100 antibacterial agents but, with the exception of the oxazolidinone core, no new scaffolds have emerged in the past 30 years to address the emerging resistance problems.
Developing new classes of antibiotics that target bacterial virulence factors such as the S. aureus carotenoid pigment is an approach that has not been utilized to anywhere near its potential. Classic antibiotic approaches attempt to kill or suppress growth of bacteria by targeting essential cell functions such as cell wall biosynthesis, protein synthesis, DNA replication, RNA polymerase, or metabolic pathways. These conventional therapies run a higher risk of toxicity since many of these cell functions are also essential to mammalian cells and require fine molecular distinction between the microbial target and host cell counterpart(s). Second, the repetitive use of the same essential targets means that when a bacterium evolves resistance to a particular antibiotic agent during therapy, it can become simultaneously cross resistant to other agents acting on the same target, even though the bacterium has never been exposed to the other agents. Third, conventional therapies exert a “life-or-death” challenge upon the bacterium, and thus a strong selective pressure to evolve resistance to the antimicrobial agent. Finally, many current antibiotics have very broad spectrums of activity, with the side effect of eradicating many components of the normal flora, leading to undesired complications such as Clostridium difficile colitis or secondary fungal infections (e.g. Candida).
The emergence of MRSA has compromised the clinical utility of methicillin and related antibiotics (oxacillin, dicloxacillin) and all cephalosporings (e.g. cefazolin, cephalexin) in empiric therapy of S. aureus infections. MRSA often have significant levels of resistance to macrolides (e.g. erythromycin), beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations (e.g. Unasyn, Augmentin) and fluoroquinolones (e.g. ciprofloxacin), and are occasionally resistant to clindamycin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxisol (Bactrim), and rifampin. In serious S. aureus infection, intravenous Vancomycin is the last resort, but there have now also been alarming reports of S. aureus resistance to vancomycin, an intravenous antibiotic commonly used to treat MRSA.
New anti-MRSA agents such as linezolid (Zyvox or quinupristin/dalfopristin (Synercid), both of which utilize the traditional target of binding to the ribosomal subunits to inhibit RNA synthesis, are quite expensive.
Subsequent studies of the S. aureus pigment have unraveled an elaborate biosynthetic pathway that produces a series of carotenoids. Similar carotenoids produced in dietary fruits and vegetables are well recognized as potent antioxidants by virtue of their free radical scavenging properties and exceptional ability to quench singlet oxygen.